Monday, December 12, 2011

A Rose By Any Other Name...

My mind was blown this weekend when I read this piece on Vulture. Here's the direct quote from the piece: “Remember As Good As It Gets?" said one agent. "That role was, until the very last moment, going to be played by Holly Hunter. Then, at the last moment, she left it, and Helen Hunt won the Oscar. But if [Hunter] had decided to move forward on it, she’d have won the Oscar, too..." Um, what?!? I had no idea that Holly Hunter was supposed to play that part. Can we go back in time and make that movie? If Sandy is the worst Best Actress winer in this past decade, Helen Hunt has that distinction for the 90's. God, she's so bland. And exactly the same as she is in Mad About You. Helena Bonham Carter was robbed! I'm not sure if Holly Hunter would have won, I mean, she had just won in 93, but she would have definitely been nominated. Hunter always brings something interesting to roles. She would have been great. So, in honor of what could have been, I've made a match game of Roles and the Actors that almost played the part. Answers after the break.

1N- Annette Bening had been cast as Catwoman (beating out Sean Young who showed up in costume to audition and scared Tim Burton) but had to drop out when she became pregnant.

2I- Eric Stoltz was the original Marty McFly and even filmed for 5 week before director, Robert Zemeckis, decided it just wasn't working and that Stoltz wasn't funny enough.

3H- Kate Winslet had originally been approached to play Hanna, but had to decline because it conflicted with Revolutionary Road. Nicole Kidman was then cast. Weeks before it started to shoot, Kidman dropped out due to pregnancy. By this time, Revolutionary Road had finished filming and Kate was able to do the film that finally won her an Oscar.

4O- Due to the success of Risky Business, Cruise was set to star in Footloose, but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with All the Right Moves. Rob Lowe was then cast but injured his knee while preparing.

5J-Blanchett was attached to star in the film version of the play Closer, but dropped out after becoming pregnant. She also dropped out of the film version of The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino at the same time.

6A- If Magnum, PI had had a different shooting schedule, the iconic fedora and whip would have been worn by Selleck.

7F- Ryder was set to play Al Pacino's daughter in the third Godfather movie, but dropped out before it started because of illness. She later revealed, during press for Girl, Interrupted, that she had checked in to a psychiatric hospital due to exhastion, anxiety, and depression.

8M- Remember when Pitt had a giant beard and long hair in the early 00's? Most wondered why the sexist man alive would go to such lengths to look homeless. But it was actually for Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain. He and Cate Blanchett were set to star, but the director lost the funding. By the time we was able to start it up again, Pitt had moved on.

9L- Most actors would love to star in a Woody Allen film, but Winslet backed out weeks before production rolled on Match Point because she decided to spend the summer with her family instead.

10G- A 20-something Ryan Gosling was cast as the father of a 13 year-old in Peter Jackson's film. Gosling showed up to set with a beard and 60 pounds of fat wanting to realistically look old enough to play her father. Jackson wasn't having it and fired him.

11K- As far back as 2002, Julianne Moore was set to star as the mother from hell in Running With Scissors. People were even predicting an Oscar win before it had even started rolling. But, she dropped out before production.

12C- Stuart Townsend was set to play Aragorn in all three of The Lord of the Rings movies and even trained for 2 months. A day before shooting, he was fired and replaced with Mortensen. Apparently, Townsend wasn't as commanding as they thought and they needed someone more mature. He wasn't even paid for his time.

13D- After the death of her father, Bruce Paltrow, Gwyneth dropped out of the production of Huckabee's a month before it started filming. She was also cast in the Maggie Gyllenhaal role in Happy Endings, but departed for the same reason.

14E- Poor Dougray Scott. The Scottish actor was cast as Wolverine in The X-Men series. But had to drop out when production on Mission Impossible II went over schedule. Instead the role made Hugh Jackman a star and most people don't even know who Scott is...

15B- For months Polley prepared for the role of Penny Lane, but quit before filming started because she didn't feel right about it. She was worried about the Hollywood production value and becoming too famous. She did a small Canadian film instead. Kate Hudson, who was orginaly cast as William's sister (Zooey Deschanel), took over the role and went on to receive an Oscar nomination and the fate that Polley avoided.